“With etching; there’s an element of danger and mystery. You don’t know how it’s going to come out. What’s black is white. What’s left is right.”
—Lucian Freud
Etching was the only print medium that Lucian Freud ever worked with. The artist admired etching’s close relationship with drawing and, unconventionally, would position his copper etching plate upright on an easel, incising the image like one would a painting. Nonetheless, it was “the element of danger and mystery” embedded in the etching process that enthralled Freud. Just as in many of his paintings, Freud's etchings feature deeply personal subjects, such as friends, dogs, self-portraits and landscapes of his garden. His etchings, however, were never copies of paintings, but were conceived independently and produced across multiple sittings.
Head and Shoulders exemplifies Freud’s meticulous, highly skilled draughtsmanship and the heightened sense of realism it creates. Finely-etched lines intricately trace the tone and form of the sitter’s face, hair and décolletage. The closely-cropped composition presents the figure from a top-down view, isolated against a starkly blank background. Such framing generates a psychological tension, suggesting an intimate rapport between artist and subject in a manner quintessential of Freud’s oeuvre. With its striking honesty, Head and Shoulders encapsulates Freud’s renowned skill in capturing the essence of his sitter with poignant yet delicate clarity.
